Electrically operated stopping device for high speed rope-making machines



March 21, 1939.

J. KRAFT 4 ELECTRICALLY OPERATED STOPPING DEVlCE FOR HIGH SPEED ROPE-MAKING MACHINES Filed .June 25, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l Jnvsnior:

March 21, 1939. J KRAFT 2,150,977

ELECTRICALLY OPERATED STOPPING DEVICE FOR HIGH SPEED ROPEJVIAKING MACHINES Filed June 25, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 .72: van to r.

Patented Mar. 21, 1939 UNITED STATES- PATENT OFFICE VICE FOR HIGH MACHINES SPEED ROPE-MARIN G Josef Kraft, Olpe in Westphalia, Germany Application June 25,

1938, Serial No. 215,933

In Germany August 17, 1937 2 Claims.

This invention relates to an electrically operated stopping-device for high speed rope making machines with drum carriers mounted to swing freely in a fiyer and in each of which a finger is 5 arranged directly behind each drum, said finger, in the event of breakage of the wire or the drum running empty, contacts with a contact bolt and closes a circuit.

Automatic stopping devices of the type mentioned are known in which, when a wire breaks or a drum becomes empty, a magnet is liberated which is arranged within the circular path of the wires to be twisted. This magnet actuates a switch mechanism located outside the circular path of the wires and is intended to switch off the machine and to actuate a braking device. These devices can only be fitted on machines in which the runner discs serving as bearings for the drum carriers do not form a homogenous fiyer, but are each driven separately without the runner discs being in any way connected. However, as soon as the runner discs arranged spaced in tandem are connected by spacer rods or tubes distributed near the edges of the discs to form an integral fiyer, as is the case in almost all twisting machines used in the wire rope making industry, these co-rotating connecting elements prevent a cooperation of the individual parts of the apparatus.

The invention relates toa stopping device, which can also be used on rope making machines whose runner discs are connected to form a single fiyer and wherein the lead for the electric current is laid along the fiyer.

As compared with the known current leads from rotating parts of a machine to the stationary parts thereof by means of contact springs or by means of a slip ring arranged at the side of each drum carrier, the novelty consists in that the current feed to the contact bolt is effected over a contact shaft rotatable and insulated in one of the journals of the drum carrier, which shaft is connected with branches from the current lead extending along the fiyer.

Another feature of the invention consists in that the contact shaft, which runs in ball bearings mounted in insulating bushes, is connected at one end directly to the current lead and at the other end to the output wire over the ball bearing and the electricity conducting cover of the bearing bush.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a rope making machine in front elevation with the front distance rods removed,

Fig. 5 shows in top plan view the wire finger 7 hingedly mounted on a drum carrier.

The drum carriers 3 each carrying a feed drum I for the material to be twisted, are oscillatably mounted in the fiyer 2 driven by a source of power through the intermediary of the pulley A. The fiyer 2 consists of runner discs coaxially arranged one behind the other at distances apart and rotatable about a horizontal axis, these discs being connected by spacer rods or spacer tubes to form an integral whole. Each of the runner discs of the fiyer rests on a pair of rotatable supporting rollers C symmetrically arranged in the base bearings B of the machine bed. The wires 4 running off the drums l whose uniform feeding mechanism is coupled with the machine drive in known manner, are fed at different points distributed along the fiyer through the slip ring 6 mounted on the rotary shaft 5 of the machine to the laying plate I and thence to the closing die 9 adjustable in axial direction by a hand wheel 8a on a spindle 8 mounted in the machine frame, the finished rope being then fed to a winding drum not shown on the drawings. Electric current is supplied to the slip ring 6 from a source of power ID by an element I l. The other end of the electric circuit is connected to the machine frame and consequently earthed.

The current flows from the slip ring 6 through the insulating wire I2 along the fiyer 2. Branch wires |2a lead to each runner and connecting disc of the fiyer 2 in radial direction to one of the journals 3a of each drum carrier 3 and along this carrier to a contact bolt l3 mounted thereon. The conducting of the current from the flyer' to each of the drum carriers is effected by a contact shaft l4 rotatably mounted in one of the journals 3a of the drum carrier in the axial direction of the machine. The contact shaft has at its ends terminals Ma and Nb respectively for connecting to the lead I211. The insulation of the contact shaft M from the journal 3a. is effected by bearing bushes l5 of non-conductive material such as artificial resin, fitted one in each end of the journal. Ball bearings it are mounted in the bushes l5 for reducing as far as possible the frictional resistance of the rotating contact shaft M. The steel ball bearings. l6 are closed on their outer sides by covers IBa, l1 fixed on the bearing bushes l5. The cover lBa at the input end of the electric circuit is made of insulating material, whereas the cover I! on the conducting or output end serves as conductor. The contact is established by the cover bearing against the ball bearing. Anannular space acting as insulating layer is formed between the wall of the bore in the journal and the contact shaft I4 mounted therein. A stirrup-shaped lever I8 is hingedly mounted as finger on' a-transverse bar 3b of the drum carrier 3. The apex of the lever I8 bears against the wire 4 running off the drum I.

If this wire breaks, or the drum becomes empty;

the lever l8 swings down by gravity on to the contact bolt I3 and thus closes the circuit. This position of the finger I8 is indicated by broken lines in Fig. 2. The closing of the circuit results in a magnet attracting an armature in known manner thereby actuating a xnechanical cut out and braking device and stopping the machine.

The stopping device may advantageously be coupled with a known acoustic or optical 'signalling device which indicates the starting up of the mechanical devices.

The operation is as follows: 7 r 'When the machine is running, the contact shaft M of each runner and connecting disc of the flyer 2 is rotated by the lead wires I2a. This shaft leads the electric current through the ball bearing I6 to the cover I1 and thence along the drum carrier 3 to the contact bolt l3. If a wire 4 breaks ora drum l becomes empty, the finger I8 looses its support and consequently swings downward on to the contact bolt 13 closing the circuit.

extending along said flyer, and branch wires lead- 7 ing from saidlead wire to each of said shafts to supply current to said bolts through the intermediary of said shaft and said connecting wires, and fingers one hingedly mounted on each of said carriers normally supported by the corresponding running off wire and adapted to contact with the corresponding bolt when unsupported by its w1re.

2.,In' a stopping device as specified in claim 1, insulating bushes one in each end of the carrier journals carrying a contact shaft, ball bearings one in each of said bushes, a cover of insulating material on the outer side of one of said ball bearings, and a cover. of insulating material on the other side of the other of said ball bearings,

the contact shaft being directly connected at 

